Notes
The Roll lists his address as 180 Dogsthorpe Road, and states he died in Peterborough Infirmary on 16/8/1919 as the "result of War service".
(Herbert Arthur Turner's birth was registered in Ipswich District in 1886. On the 1891 census he was living with his parents Arthur and Alice at 21 Cross Street in St Mary Stoke, Suffolk; his place of birth was given as Ipswich. On the 1901 census he and his parents lived at 12 Embankment Terrace in Chelmsford, Essex.
On the 1911 census Herbert was lodging at 14 Milton Road in Old Fletton, Peterborough, working as a clerk for the Co-operative Society. His marriage to Mildred Fanny Rooke on 5/8/1912 was recorded at Fletton Church in Peterborough. They had two children: Sybil Joan born 1913 (who died in 1917) and Hubert born 26/2/1915.
Herbert's Army pension file records that when he enlisted on 16/5/1916 as a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery he was assessed as being category A, fit for active service at home and abroad, with no recorded health issues, and was assigned the regimental number 82462. His date of birth was recorded as 16/5/1886; his address was mistakenly recorded on the flyleaf of his pension file as 180 "Hogsthorpe" Road, rather than Dogsthorpe Road.
On 29/5/1916 Herbert was posted to the 18th Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery. On 10/7/1916 he joined 182 Siege Battery, with which he went to France on 29/9/1916. His file records that on 6/12/1916 he was admitted to hospital for an unspecified illness; he returned to duty 14/12/1916.
According to his pension file, on 27/9/1917 he was admitted to No7 General Hospital, having been wounded by gas. On 4/10/1917 he was invalided back to England on the Hospital Ship 'St Andrew', due to his gas wounds. Following treatment, he served out the rest of the War in the UK. On 2/1/1918 he was posted to No2 Depot at Brocklehurst; he joined the 3rd Siege Artillery Reserve Brigade on 4/3/1918. On 27/5/1918 he transferred to the 2/1st Kent Heavy Battery of the RGA. On 1/6/1918 he was assessed by the Army doctor as being health category B1.
On 11/3/1919 Herbert was posted to the Reserve Brigade. He was serving in 1st Reserve Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery when he was transferred to the Army Reserve (Class Z) on 18/4/1919. (He was not awarded the Silver War Badge). On 13/3/1919 he had signed a statement that he was not claiming to be "suffering from a disability due to military service". However, his file records that the Army awarded him a 30% pension in respect of neurasthenia from the date he left the Army until his death four months later. (His file records that he had married on 5/8/1912 and that his son Herbert had been born on 26/2/1915).
Herbert's death certificate records that when he died aged 37 on 16/8/1919 at Peterborough Infirmary his address was 180 Dogsthorpe Road; his occupation was listed as "Clerk, Co-operative Society (ex Army)"; the cause of death was recorded as cerebral tumour, decompression and heart failure; his brother in law Alfred Hoare registered the death. The Cemetery records state that he was buried on 19/8/1919 at Eastfield Cemetery in Section 1, Grave 65.
Herbert is not currently recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a First World War casualty. Documents have now been forwarded to them with a request for consideration of whether he is suitable for acceptance onto their registers. (Although Herbert had signed the statement on 13/3/1919 that he did not claim to be suffering from a disability due to his military service, the Army had downgraded his fitness level from Category A with no health problem in 1916, to Category B1 on 1/6/1918, following his wounding by gas; in 1919 he was awarded a 30% Army pension in respect of neurasthenia. The evidence within his pension file therefore proves that his health had been adversely affected by his military service.
Herbert had been gassed in 1917; in 1919 he died from cerebral tumour/decompression/heart failure. Among the chemical weapons used on the battlefields in 1917 was mustard gas which, in addition to its respiratory and vesicant effects, is a known carcinogenic, and has been acknowledged as having resulted in the subsequent death of many post-discharge soldiers).